[FARM] Here we go...

[CanadaSue]

Alberta... cattle country & home of great people is suffering from the worse drought in 130 years. Farmers are selling off their herds of beef cattle & it ain't gonna get better soon. Read it & weep:
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/06/01/drought010601

That means next month I can fill my freezer with cheap beef but man, I sure don't like the reason why I'll be able to do so.

Are some ranching areas of the US having to do the same?

 

[Amazed]

What a mess. I am seriously becoming scared about our food supplies. I've never in my lifetime seen natural disasters strike so many places at once. Planned or not, this will have dire effects on millions of people.

My garden, BTW is being threatened by too much rain.

 

[CanadaSue]

Amazed, I'm thinking along the same lines. It seems here in North America, if we're not drought stricken, we're under flood watch. Here on the edge of Lake ONtario, April was very dry. Farmers were concerned about even putting a crop in. Now we're entering our third week of rain; thankfully not deluges but enough to return water levels to normal.

Having said that, if it doesn't stop soon, we'll have too much. I'm watching food prices climbing & climbing... In my house, fresh produce has become a luxury item other than root crops; spuds, carrots, onions, etc. I saw cabbages going for $1.49... almost threw up.

One of our provinces just announced a huge rate hike for natual gas customers & my province is de-regulating electricity next year... gack!

We're seeing people go hungry & that's only going to get worse. As bad as it was for many this past winter, I'm seriously afraid that was just the beginning.

Gonna be a volatile time in our history, I think. Just too much seems to be happening all at once. It gets difficult to absorb sometimes.

 

[Amazed]

I hear ya Sue. Food prices in Canada have been high, high, high for years. It was one of my chief complaints when I left N.B. about 20 years ago and moved to the States. It was so pleasant for years here to grocery shop. Low prices, fresh produce etc. But just in the last 3 or 4 months, prices have gone through the roof.
Just got my light bill. It was double what I paid last month.
We're entering our third wek of rain (it's pouring out now.) Some of my bulbs are rotting.
IMO there's going to be a lot of cold hungry people this winter. The parties over.
My biggest fear in all this is that we are a nation of spoiled, immoral people. No guts anymore. How will people respond? I seriously doubt they'll develop a stiff upper lip, pull in their belts, and survive.

 

[ytwok pumps]

CSue hi! Reading your response about filling your freezer with cheaper beef sounds great now but with a little more thought you'll probably agree that it makes more sense to purchase beef in the form of jerky and maybe vacumn pack it in quart glass jars.

When the states lose their power our northern neighbor will certainly lose their power also. This back and forth on the power issues is only a primer for our understanding as to why we are without power so we can point to all the causes which have been trotted out and busy ourselves fingering who's to blame. A mere exercise only. The real reasons will continue to remain hidden therefore planning to fill a freezer full of beef might actually be somewhat more expensive than you first thought unless the freezer is off the grid.

 

[CanadaSue]

Afternoon Y2K... actually we're not shoret on power, either electricity or natural gas. Prices here have gone up because producers are making a fortune selling it to the States. PPrices here are reflecting your current prices.

Our infrastructure is in decent shape, especially after the Ice Storm when most high tension lines in southern Quebec were replced. Hydro is still doing fine in northern Quebec & Ontario.

It may make more sense to vaccum pack, but I have the freezer & if the power goes in winter, I'm not risking losing my meat...lol. Once the bucks are better, I'll look at vaccum packing.

I'm in, unfortunately, an electricly heated building. If worse comes to worse, I can keep one room above freezing & should things really get bad, can bug out to one of my brother's places. They're both in the middle of nowhere with offgrid capacity.

Ya do what ya can, eh? My big worry is food & food supply. Still got my preps & don't plan on NOT having any, ever. Not worth the worry...

 

[Laurane]

I live right here in Central Alberta and it is verging on disaster for some of the beef growers, but the grain producers are the ones who are really hurting.

Brother-in-law in Sask. owes the bank for 2 years worth of seed and fertilizer/herbicide from previous crop failure and if he has no crop this year he loses everything. And the same for most of his neighbors....less than an inch of rain yet and the winds are so strong....the pioneer people round here have never seen it like this.

The winds keep whipping up the huge fires burning up north in the bush/muskeg country and the fires are burning 2 feet down. If Alberta has poor grain crops this year, look for rising prices on everything - we supply a lot of the hard durum for pasta and the bread grains.

 

[CanadaSue]

Laurane... already seeing the higher prices for grain products. Thatnx for the warning on grain cops though. I know a lot of Ontario's winter wheat crop has been ruined because of snow mould...

Tell me, are they still watching the 'neighbourhood suicide watches' for farmers in Saskatchewan? It's a damned disgrace that it's gotten this bad.

And why oh why are we still stuck with those blasted marketing boards? The farmers are really getting screwed; as they have been for 2o years...

 

[onengrace]

ytwok,
Could you give a few short tips on the process to make dried beef perhaps in your own thread so we don't drift on this one. Your thought has crossed my mind. I am thinking of selling my freezer but isn't it a funny thing...there doesn't seem to be any canned beef other than corned beef. I have been looking around for some. Anybody know where to order canned or quantity of beef..or dried beef online. I will use search engine also. I have an entire pantry filled with canned fish of all kinds....have ham too but not beef.
Please no Dinty Moore stew!